Like many Irish emigrants, my relationship with St Patrick’s Day might best be summed up by that wonderful social media formulation: it’s complicated. Ask any Irish person who has emigrated, and most will tell you that St Patrick’s Day takes on a different meaning. It is by turns celebratory and melancholy. A chance to remember and miss the best of home, while at the same time being slightly horrified at people’s adoption of a narrow version of your country’s heritage for one day. It’s great to be so loved, but you are never quite sure people get what it really means to be Irish.
Stephen James Smith's My Ireland video poem for this year's festivities perfectly captures all these contradictions about what, in 2017, Irishness means and might come to mean.
If St Patrick's Day away from home takes on a new importance, then your first St Patrick's Day in a new home is even more special. Mine will centre around work and a bookshop that feels like a second home to me in Oslo.
Unmistakable figure
I remember the first time I went to this bookshop, which is on the right-hand side as you turn left from Storgata in Oslo city centre on to Bernt Ankers street. Only a slim white sign indicates Cappelens Forslag. I might have missed it were it not for the unmistakable figure standing in the doorway.
As I approached, glancing up from my smartphone as I followed Google maps, I saw a man with short, greying hair standing there smoking. But what caught my attention was his t-shirt. It was a deep green and in delicate white font had Irish on it. It read, “Ní bheidh mo leithéid arís ann”, “You won’t see the likes of me again”. It was a pleasant surprise, since nothing I had read online about this bookshop had intimated any Irish connection. And yet, the Irish connection was strong, as I’ve since found out.
Cappelens Forslag is the brainchild of Andreas Cappelen and Pil Cappelen, who are unrelated, but connected by this famous Norwegian name. Ask most Norwegians what Cappelen means to them, and they will say books. But they mean Cappelens Damm, Norway’s biggest publishing house.
Cappelens Forslag, or Cappelen’s Recommendation as it translates into English, is a bookshop intent on turning back the clock encouraging the analogue pleasures of the bookshop experience. It is a speciality store selling rare and used English and Norwegian language books.
It also acts as a venue for musicians, poets and artists of various kinds, and sells tea and coffee. More than a bookshop, it is a cultural hub. Andreas and Pil have also turned their hand to publishing. Cappelen Forslags Konversasjonleksikon, now in its second volume, is a subjective encyclopedia. It’s contributors include RTÉ’s John Kelly and Jarvis Cocker of Pulp fame.
Paddy’s Fringe
The Irishman who works there is John Fitzgerald. John is from Galway and has spent many years living and working in Norway. As St Patrick's Festival in Ireland has now extended to a week, the festivities in Oslo are slowly catching up with them, in part thanks to the work of John and his new project, Paddy's Fringe. "I have wanted to do something for years focusing on Ireland's cultural diversity, so I came up with Paddy's Fringe," he said. "I gave myself a very short lead-in, but have managed to put together a great programme, featuring over 28 different contributions. This is a seed year and I am hoping to include a lot more next year."
The new fringe festival runs from March 16th-19th and includes a documentary film fleadh on St Patrick’s Day, an album launch by Irish rock musician Eamonn Dowd and a concert by Bergen-based Dermot Barrett, formerly of Ten Speed Racer. The last day of Paddy’s Fringe will see a series of talks at the bookshop on Sunday including everything from history to poetry and short stories to journalism. It promises to be a dynamic event over four days, showing off the breadth of Irish skill, talent and creativity in Norway and at home.
Although such cities as Boston, Chicago, New York, London or Sydney may be more famous destinations for their St Patrick’s Day celebrations, Oslo has plenty to offer the Irish person living abroad, or someone looking for a different Paddy’s Day destination.
There will be a parade on Saturday at midday, followed by a family event at the old Posthallen. That morning, Paddy’s Fringe will run a special children’s film fleadh in the hours before the parade.
I’ll be missing the parade in Oslo, because I’ll be working, serving behind the bar at Oslo’s longest-established Irish pub, The Dubliner, right in the heart of the city. As a child, I never walked in the parade at home, but now in Oslo I’ll get to be at the heart of the party, a small part of making it a great day for those on the other side of the bar, whether Irish, Norwegian or something else altogether. For a first St Patrick’s Day in my new home, what could be more memorable?
David Toms is a writer based in Norway. He tweets @daithitoms and blogs at thesidelinesofhistory.wordpress.com
